Build an adaptive organization. VMCL is a systems-based model for designing and leading organizations. NFST is a systems-based model for leading organizational change. Together, they are a powerful combination.

We’re living through a revolution in how human beings learn and develop. We’re two decades into the ‘anyone can learn anything’ era and it’s translating into big changes in formal education worldwide. Unbelievable progress will be made in the next two decades. For example, my grandkids will be able to vote about the time that artificial intelligence becomes smarter than we are.

Despite my optimism about learning innovations, no one can predict the future. Few predicted the 10% stock market correction in January, nobody predicted the 70% drop in the price of oil (from $94 per barrel on 6/30/14 to $27 per barrel last week). Nobody saw September 11… or ISIS coming (or the unfortunate link between the two). Nobody saw World War I, or the Internet, or the collapse of the Soviet Union.

These unexpected high-profile Black Swan events are important developments that are way outside anyone’s forecast. They seem to be happening more frequently given the collision of complex human systems, exponential technology (Moore’s Law etc.), and the climate that we’ve increasingly messed with. What makes these unexpected events more worrisome is the concomitant loss of civic capacity and collective problem solving ability (as evidenced by the early U.S. presidential campaigns).

With some certainty we can project five megatrends a decade or two into the future:

- Tech: We’re living on an exponential curve but our brains make linear projections. When it comes to new technology, almost everything is closer than it appears. - Smart AI: Artificial intelligence, the new infrastructure for everything, will progress rapidly and in the next decade will be better at a lot of things than we are. - Cities: People are moving to cities and, according to Harvard’s Ed Glaeser they make us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier. We think that will require a pretty thick layer of intermediation. - Careers: It’s a project-based world; the influence of the freelancing and the gig economy will rise. - Relationships: The first 20 years of digital learning suggest that most human beings learn and grow in relationship; technology can help but our brains value face-to-face interaction.

A step-by-step process for attracting, converting and monetising the most profitable customers in your market. Let’s start with a simple premise: all customers are not created equal. Some are dramatically more profitable than others.

The purpose of The Science of Learning is to summarize the existing research from cognitive science related to how students learn, and connect this research to its practical implications for teaching and learning. This document is intended to serve as a resource to teacher-educators, new teachers, and anyone in the education profession who is interested in our best scientific understanding of how learning takes place.

This document identifies six key questions about learning that should be relevant to nearly every educator. Deans for Impact believes that, as part of their preparation, every teacher-candidate should grapple with — and be able to answer — the questions in The Science of Learning. Their answers should be informed and guided by the existing scientific consensus around basic cognitive principles. And all educators, including new teachers, should be able to connect these principles to their practical implications for the classroom (or wherever teaching and learning take place).

The Science of Learning was developed by member deans of Deans for Impact in close collaboration with Dan Willingham, a cognitive scientist at the University of Virginia, and Paul Bruno, a former middle-school science teacher. We are greatly indebted to the reviewers who provided thoughtful feedback and comments on early drafts, including cognitive scientists, teacher-educators, practicing teachers, and many others.

The Science of Learning does not encompass everything that new teachers should know or be able to do, but we believe it is part of an important — and evidence-based — core of what educators should know about learning. Because our scientific understanding is ever evolving, we expect to periodically revise. The Science of Learning to reflect new insights into cognition and learning. We hope that teachers, teacher-educators, and others will conduct additional research and gather evidence related to the translation of these scientific principles to practice.

ALL around us there is widespread societal disenchantment with organizations of all sorts – public, private, and even not-for-profits. Trust levels are at an all-time low. TV programs like The Office make us laugh – and feel uncomfortable. They remind us that the contemporary obsession with “engagement” is symptomatic of a problem: widespread disengagement.

So we have begun to think about what it takes to create organizations that we believe in and want to be part of. We have been considering how we might build organizations in which people are trusted and feel they can be their authentic selves. Such organizations are likely to be attractive places to work, to retain talent, and to encourage creativity and innovation.

Habit 1: Emotional literacy. Teaching emotion literacy as the gateway to empathy so children can recognize and understand the feelings and needs of others in their body language, voice tone or facial expressions. Chapter 1.

Habit 2: Moral Identity. Helping children develop ethical codes and caring mindsets so they are more likely to adopt caring values that guide their integrity and activate their empathy to feel with and help others. Chapter 2.

Habit 3. Perspective taking. Stretching perspective taking abilities and Theory of Mind so children can step into others’ shoes to understand another person’s feelings, thoughts, and views. Chapter 3.

Habit 4. Moral Imagination. Using elevating, emotionally-charged images in literature, film, news and images as a source of inspiration to help children empathetic. Chapter 4.

PRACTICING EMPATHY

Habit 5. Self-Regulation. Helping children learn ways to manage strong emotions and reduce personal distress to keep their empathy open, avoid the Empathy Gap and be more likely empathize and to help others. Chapter 5

Habit 6. Practicing Kindness.Developing and exercising kindness and pro-social behaviors to increase children’s concern about the welfare and feelings of others and enhance the likelihood that they will step in to help, support or comfort others. Chapter 6.

Habit 7. Collaboration. Cultivating teamwork and collaborative abilities to help kids work with others to achieve shared goals for the benefit of all and develop a WE, not ME mindset. Chapter 7.

Habit 9. Compassionate Leadership Abilities. Cultivating altruistic leadership abilities to motivate children to make a difference for others, no matter how small it may be and boost their chances of becoming Social Changemakers. Chapter 9.

Every now and again, folks send me stuff about empathy. Such was the case with this piece below, a short animation published on the Atlantic ‘s website, and titled Against Empathy. The video is put together by the animator, with content and narration by Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom.

It’s pretty short (less than 3 min.) and in it, Bloom equates empathy to selfish moralizing. In the course of the video, he knocks charitable giving, saying that empathy leads to people giving small amounts of money to lots of charity, which causes the various charities to lose money, instead of the ostensibly dispassionate, non-empathetic giver who is a more effective altruist.

Bloom goes on to say that charities don’t know what they’re doing in the context of fundraising (he knows, but not them) and that empathy is fundamentally impulsive and destroys consequential behavior.

There’s more — he also points to leaders psychopathically using empathy against us, and then says that having empathy starts wars, which end up in lots of people dying. If we go to war against ISIS, he argues, it will be because of empathy and wanting to help the people in Syria. But there will be many more victims than people save, and we essentially won’t care.

I've been a school coach for a really long time. which means I've been on the receiving end of the "we need you/ can you come on Thursday/ do you know how to..." phone call about 10,000 times. It's all good - that's the gig, and I knew what I was getting into when I signed up, and it's fabulous, rewarding work that I'm proud to do. But recently I was asked to work with a faculty group with the express goal of helping them see what they were already doing well so they can continue to grow.

As a business owner you will always have a lot on your plate, and if you are like most business owners, you will pride yourself on your ability to multitask in order to get everything done. Research has long shown that multitasking is actually a very inefficient way in which to operate, yet business owners tend to take little notice of such research findings. Perhaps, if you were conscious of what multitasking is doing to your brain, you might review your modus operandi, and focus on monotasking instead. This article should be a wake up call for every business owner who sees multitasking as a virtue.

The secret to empathetic behavior lies in the hormone oxytocin, which promotes maternal bonding and feelings of love among humans, too.

Dogs, dolphins and elephants are known to show empathy when a loved one is in pain, and now researchers have found the first consoling behavior in a rodent, known as the prairie vole.

Researchers say the findings, published Thursday in the US journal Science, could help scientists better understand human disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, in which a person's ability to sense the emotions of others is disrupted.

The secret to empathetic behavior lies in the hormone oxytocin, which promotes maternal bonding and feelings of love among humans, too.

Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University created an experiment in which they isolated prairie voles -- dark rodents which mate in long-term monogamous pairs and raise their offspring together -- from others they knew.

Without a coherent and consistent theory to underpin learning, you risk each lesson or learning episode becoming a stand alone and random opportunity.

Our friends at Educational Technology and Mobile Learning have referred us to the excellent work of Instructional Design who have published a list of fifty of the most influential educational theories which inform the design of learning.

Measurement : If satisfied employees are productive at an index level of 100, then engaged employees produce at 144, nearly half again as much. But then comes the real kicker: inspired employees score 225 on this scale.

While investing in the less tangible, more human aspects of your company may not seem like a commonsense way to boost the bottom line,a recent report by Glassdoor revealed a positive correlation between work culture and stock values. Companies where workers rated their employers highly outperformed the S&P 500 by 122 percent, while companies with low employee ratings underperformed the S&P 500 by 29.5 percent.

The great thing about investing in human potential is it’s both morally and fiscally responsible. When you help people become their best possible selves, your company benefits as much as they do. The effects can also spread beyond the company’s walls, unlocking potential within families, communities, and society at large.

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Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.